'My valentine for life' - Hardik Pandya shares an adorable picture with Natasa Stankovic

Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya is currently recovering from his lower-back injury in the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore. Pandya was recently seen sweating out in the nets at the NCA and is eyeing a comeback to competitive cricket later this month where he’ll turn out for the Reliance outfit in the annual corporate Dr DY Patil T20 tournament.

Hardik last played for Team India in the third Twenty20 International of the three-match series against South Africa back in September following which he went to London where he underwent surgery in his lower-back- an issue that has grappled him since the 2018 edition of the Asia Cup. The surgery turned out to be successful and Pandya, who is very active on social media constantly shared the updates of his recovery on Twitter and Instagram.

Pandya may have not played any competitive cricket since September but he’s been pretty active on the personal front of his life. The mercurial all-rounder rung in the New Year in the most romantic way possible when he shared a video of him kneeling down to his knees and proposing Serbian model Natasa Stankovic on a cruise.

Naturally, with Friday being Valentine’s day, both Pandya and Stankovic took to social media to wish each other on Valentine’s Day. Pandya took to Twitter where he posted a photo with Natasa, captioning it as “My valentine for life”. 

Hardik Pandya was slated to make a comeback during NZ tour

Pandya lends a great balance to the side thanks to precocious battling skills and a steadily improving seam bowling, giving Virat Kohli the fifth bowling action. In the absence of Pandya, India have tried Shivam Dube as his backup but the Mumbai all-rounder- barring a half-century against West Indies and a three-wicket haul against Bangladesh- failed to grab the opportunity with his bowling coming under heavy scrutiny.

Pandya was earlier slated to make a comeback during the tour of New Zealand. He was even named in the India A side for the four-day game but was replaced by Tamil Nadu all-rounder Vijay Shankar with reports emerging that the all-rounder wanted didn’t want to rush his comeback.

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